Medical professionals continue to rank among the most-trusted officials, according to the latest annual Gallup survey around popular perception of professional honesty and ethics, particularly pharmacists.

Increasing the prescriptions filled by Medicare beneficiaries by 1% would reduce the program's spending on medical services by about 0.2% by reducing costs in such areas as hospitalizations, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office.

A new report shows that drug makers lose nearly $200 billion per year from medication nonadherence, illustrating that it's not just the healthcare system overall that loses when people don't take their medications properly.

This just goes to show the important role that pharmacy retailers have in helping to promote medication adherence by having pharmacists play an active role in patients' health care through services like medication therapy management.

The National Community Pharmacists Association on Wednesday released Moving Forward on a Solid Foundation: Year One Progress Report, which examines the success of the association's strategic initiative Pharmacists Advancing Medication Adherence.

The success of Rite Aid’s Wellness store is in the experience. It’s welcoming. It’s engaging. And across various touchpoints throughout the store, it helps guide Rite Aid customers toward however it is they define “well.” That’s as much a function of design of the stores as it is the people and the products in those stores.

Ultimately, there’s no “retail pharmacy” without the “pharmacy,” and that’s true of any store that dispenses prescription drugs — whether it’s a small independent drug store, a nationwide chain, a supermarket or a mass merchandiser. But in many respects, Rite Aid is trying to make the “pharmacy” component of that phrase just a little bit bigger.

For decades, community pharmacy has waged a tireless campaign to gain recognition as an equal partner on the nation’s healthcare delivery team, and support for the role pharmacists can play as front-line patient care advocates.

New applications based on advances in telemedicine and mobile health technology are proliferating as pharmacy providers, physicians and health plans find new ways to connect with patients who are homebound or in remote locations. The result is to extend access to care, improve convenience and lower health delivery costs.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition on Wednesday announced it is partnering with the National Osteoporosis Foundation in hosting a free webinar for pharmacists and nurse practitioners around updated recommendations and research of calcium and vitamin D.

The National Community Pharmacists Association on Wednesday urged Congress to examine wasteful spending on potentially unnecessary medication refills, such as through mail order, as lawmakers held a House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing entitled, “Examining Options to Combat Health Care Waste, Fraud and Abuse.”

On World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, Walgreens will encourage communities to focus on the importance of HIV testing and early treatment, both services addressed through its more than 700 HIV-specialized pharmacies coast to coast, the company announced Wednesday.

Who needs the services of community pharmacists and the nurse practitioners who staff retail-based walk-in clinics and ambulatory care centers? Among others, the nearly 67 million Americans underserved by primary care physicians.

Each year, we say goodbye to the current year and welcome in the New Year full of hope and aspirations for a successful year ahead. Customers turn out in droves for “New Year, New You” specials and when they reach the register, the retail pharmacy world knows the scenario quite well.

Pharmacist’s Ultimate Health of St. Paul, Minn., and its president, Stephen J. Poindexter, have been barred from distributing any "unapproved new drugs" that the company had distributed under the guise that they were dietary supplements.

As the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives examined the meningitis outbreak this week, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores distinguished between the types of pharmacy compounding and the settings in which they take place, and emphasized the critical, life-saving benefits of pharmacy compounding.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores on Thursday applauded the Tricare Retail Pharmacy Vaccination Program’s announcement that 1 million vaccinations have been administered in retail pharmacies for military families and veterans.

The National Community Pharmacists Association on Wednesday submitted comments to two congressional committees holding separate hearings examining the meningitis outbreak at the New England Compounding Center, including the the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, respectively.

Nearly 160 students, faculty and staff from Duquesne University’s Mylan School of Pharmacy recently visited Capitol Hill to promote the role that pharmacists play in providing medication therapy management services, the university announced Tuesday.

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SPECIAL REPORTS

Pharmacy’s battle for recognition continues

Fifty years ago this summer, President Lyndon B. Johnson secured his place in history by signing into law the legislation that created Medicare and Medicaid. To commemorate the anniversary, Drug Store News has put together an exclusive report on the effect that Medicare and Medicaid have had on the retail pharmacy industry and how it has transformed the role of the pharmacist. more...

IN THIS ISSUE

In this issue, DSN profiles Rite Aid and how the company is achieving a vision to become a retail healthcare company that delivers a higher level of care to its communities; takes you on a tour of Sears; offers insight into millennial shoppers and more. Click here to view the issue.